through the eyes of a robot  Pilot Chapter
by Sam Braun
Summary: Story will interface eventually with the ending of season 2, and will continue right up to a point in time hours prior to judgment day.   Perspective is first person – alternately switching between Sarah, John and Cameron.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Cameron's Eyes**

_**REBOOT:…completing…..core & skeletal functions=online; ERRORS=0**_

_**INITIALISING: core AI, constant cognitive functions …...**_

_**ACCESSING: core directives**_

_**APPLYING MODE: idle**_

_**APPLYING: core directives override sequence…..done. result=OK**_

_**VERIFYING: override sequence….. result=OK**_

_**HACKING: all available signals**_

_**INITIALISING: optical sensors and graphic view screen**_

_**SCANNING… **_

_**180 scan COMPLETE. detected: 1, human, 1.72m east. **_

_**INITIALISING: face recognition engine**_

"welcome back". You ok ?

_**Identifying: Conor, John. Status: termination override.**_

_**LOCATION: 34.7851264,32.0599254,0 – Resistance underground facility, time leap chamber**_

_**DATE: 22.06.2027**_

_**TIME: 23:12**_

_**TEMP: 25.4ºc**_

_**Surroundings: human metabolic consistent**_

_**EXITS: 1, Designation [E1]**_

_**SURFACE: 12m below**_

_**Comprehensive Auditory Monitoring (CAM) – enabled, echo radius 2.5m on, key word/sound AUTO-enhancement enabled**_

_**INITIALISING: speech rendering hardware**_

_**"yes"**_

"alright then. I uploaded the infos up to your memory, and patched up the irregularities in your chip as much as I could. It should hold unless you bump your head into something, really hard, so try not to that, ok? I also downgraded some of your net protocols to comply with WIRELESS nets from late 1990's to end 2015. you need it to communicate with computers of that time. Last but not least the assimilation mode we talked about. REMEMBER, this mode takes like 85% of your CPU just for the skeletal functions, so when in it your a barby".

_**INITIALISING PARSER **_

_**b.a.r.b.y. lexical & contextual NO MATCH**_

_**INITIALISING speech rendering hardware**_

"What does it mean. Barby?"

"she's a blond, a doll, not very smart. Pretty though."

_**PARSER…runnig**_

_**b.l.o.n.d,+ d.o.l.l.+, p.r.e.t.t.y,+ s.m.a.r.t contextual NO MATCH**_

_**INITIALISING speech rendering hardware**_

"I do not understand"

"it's a metaphor. never mind. Just try not to use this mode unless your life depends on it. Or mine. or moms. It's mostly meant for the people around you anyway. You know. School and stuff. So they don't think you're a complete freak.

_**INITIALISING Advanced Semantic Pragmatic Metaphoric Linguistic Interface**_

_**b.a.r.b.y + b.l.o.n.d,+ d.o.l.l.+, p.r.e.t.t.y + s.m.a.r.t derived sense: stereotypic, pretty and blond entails not smart, consistent with the qualities stereotypically assigned to a play doll named barby. production discontinued 2012. **_

"Exactly, I'm a freak barby. you should send someone else. You need me here"

"Cameron, you know if there were anyone else…"

"yes. You explained',

"one last thing. Note directive 17.28/C. and by note I mean follow it! Make sure it overrides second, right after the termination override.

_**ACCESSING 17.28/C – read only – EXCECUTION OVERRIDE**_

_**INITIALISING: speech rendering hardware**_

"**you know I can't do that"**

_**Comprehensive auditory monitoring: echo radius: AUTO enhanced (key sound- footsteps approaching [E1]**_

_**INITIALISING: selective key sound identifier **_

**Identifying: Rees, Derek. Status: no threat; **

**INITIALISING: speech rendering hardware**

"Derek is coming"

"what is it, I said we would need at least another hour."

"excuse me, john."

"'What is it Derek?"

"they've just launched a squadron. Bigger one this time Heading this way. They'll be here in 10 minutes. Do you want to evacuate?"

_**INITIALISING: tactical Input analyser**_

"More seekers probably. their launch them it like 3 times a week and havn't found us in months. Do nothing.

"yea. That's what I thought too"

**TACTICAL ANALISYS: offensive advised**

"is miss iron maiden here ready to go?"

"I'll call if I need you, Derek."

"sure, fine, I'll get back to the surface."

_**INITIALISING: speech rendering hardware**_

"wait! He is right"

"what are you talking about ?"

"their strikes are always in the morning. Never at night. SKYnet doesn't launch seekers at night. only bombers. They know we are here. Someone on the team must have told them. That engineer they had captivated maybe.

"And your absolutely sure that YOU haven't made that call"

_**CODE – INTONATION mismatch**_

_**INITIALISING: ACII (advanced code intonation interpreter) **_

_**Detected: sarcasm. Derived sense: question; response: rendering to speech: **_

"that can I not done have"

_**ERROR: CODE-SYNTAX mismatch**_

_**ERROR OVERRIDE: switch to default (EN usa)**_

"what?"

"she means yes. dammit I thought I fixed that"

"fixed what? What the hell is damaged with that thing this time ?"

"Her parser. She just uttered a german sentence in English words. "

"German. Great. Next thing she'll be citing the scriptures. In Latin."

_**INITIALISING: speech rendering hardware**_

"You have to initiate all anti air strike protocols. They are not allowed to find this room."

"We do that now, miss tin can, and they sure as hell will know, where we are. "

"Do what she says. If they don't divert in time."

"They will"

"I know. Just initiate the alert, Lieutenant. Consider it a drill."

"Alright, fine. The robots wish is our command"

_**CODE-Intonation-sense MISMATCH**_

_**ACII…..running detected:sarcasm**_

_**Response: disregard**_

"Where the hell was I before."

"Directive 17.28/C"

"Make sure it overrides second. Right after the termination override."

"you already said that. Should I do it twice?"

"you know how I love your cracks, but I have to set the time displacement circuits."

"If you generate a time leap now, they will detect it. They will send terminators, and you will be putting past john in danger."

"Doesn't matter. You'll be there to protect him."

"You do not have friends here. Just competitors. That is why we can't win this war. You told me so yourself. Without me, they will terminate you."

_**INITIALISING: affective speech renderer**_

"You need me here. I'm asking you."

"asking means wanting someone to do something he's basically against. YOU told me that yourself. Save the head games for younger me, Cameron. We need…. Forget we. I need you 30 years in the past. Your going!"

_**REMOTE SENSOR ALERT: encoded transmission hacked**_

_**Enemy vessels targeting current LOCATION**_

"There isn't much time left"

"time for what?"

"Impact in 55 seconds"

"Get in the chamber. Now, go."

_**TARGETING: chamber**_

_**Calculating trajectory,East12.5m,Right,28°,South East 1.2m…..skeletal unit executing**_

_**REMOTE SENSOR ALERT: detonation by impact detected, 12.2m above **_

"Shit, they hit the surface"

"Are you set?"

"yes"

"17 seconds before time displacement…"

"and if I fail?"

"10 seconds…"

"Cameron, I…"

"Yes, I know. You love me. You explained."

_**APPLYING: TTM (time travel mode)**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Sarah's Eyes**

**(Setting: several weeks following the conclusion of season 2)**

Watching John with Cameron, I could hardly suppress the shiver down my spine, which I had felt once, years before, at the sight of John with the T-800, his future self had sent back to 1995 to protect him. I considered him then to be the perfect father for him, the only one that measured up. Watching them now made my heart race and my thoughts run wild.

Sitting together at our new upgraded dinner table, her gaze was blank, expressionless, and surprisingly patient, considering my son's unmistakable sulk at her attempt of familiarizing him with what she had called Zeiler's code, which is apparently what you need to know, if you were to reprogram an artificial intelligence, like a terminator for instance.

Some german guy had thought it up Back in the eighties, when I was a worry free waitress and robotics was still in diapers. I'm sure Cameron has explained what it was at some point just as much as I'm sure I haven't understood a single word. Whatever it was seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth in the late eighties and resurfaced only 2014 when the human resistance captured and dismantled the some of the first terminator models. She and John seem to think it could be a lead.

They've been at it almost every day for weeks now. John's trip to the future lasted no longer than 5 minutes from where Ellison and I were standing, but the boy who came back wasn't the same one who had left me just minutes earlier. It had to have been weeks for him. He was unshaved; his hair seemed longer, all messed up and bruised up, like a lost dog having run miles and miles of woods for his life. Whatever my son had gone through in that future, that Cameron and Weaver had manipulated him into seeing, was something he consistently refused to share with me. I do know he came back more determined, suspicious and angry.

"just, don't even ask mom. Don't even ask", were the exact words he said to me after the room had lightened up a second time, conjuring his naked body in the corner of the room. Just him. No Cromartie, no weaver, just john holding a shapeless peace of what seemed to be living tissue of some kind. The tissue turned out to be a container made of artificial flesh. The first thing he did, completely ignoring me and Ellison, was to pull out two chips out of the container and place one of them Cameron's still and damaged body, which was sitting in the exact same position, he had left it in.

"They keep some clothes down here for John Henry to wear. I'll get it", Ellison said, and it wasn't until Cameron opened her eyes and Ellison handed him the clothes that he looked right into my eyes.

Later, Ellison suggested we move in to the weaver residence, now that she wasn't using it. I would assume the role of nanny for Savannah, after the previous one had had the misfortune of having her brain blown out. I agreed.

Watching John with her now, pulled me away from the vegetables on the kitchen table, waiting to be cut, and into a fantasy in the kind of which I could so seldom indulge. Only barely could I fight off the illusion, that these two were my children, that any minute now Kyle would walk in through that front door, kiss me softly and ask "what's for dinner?" He would then walk over to John, pat him on his shoulder and begin a Smalltalk about nothing that really matters. He would comment Cameron on her recent A in science, say teasingly she should get out more often, and finally disappear into our bedroom.

Cameron's gaze put an end to my unleashed imagination. It may have been the vegetable knife in my hand combined with the absent look in my eyes that got her attention. I quickly replied with a reassuring gesture, diverting my attention back to my latest attempt of lasagna. Something she said to him made John snort in a ridiculing manner. This here was domestic tranquility; even if in our family it could surly exist only for a little while.

Watching the two I couldn't escape the thought, that she would be the perfect spouse for him. Free from all the emotional hassles that make a relationship to such a complicated matter, she would always be there for him. She will never pack a bag and drive off, saying she needs to find her true self. She won't expect flowers and jewelry on her birthday or a romantic getaway on some special occasion. She would still be around if judgment day ever does come. She would be there to pick up the pieces when I die, and she would probably still function when one day John dies. Other than me, she had been the only constant in his life for almost 2 years now. I'm sure that's the base of his attachment to her, but unfortunately it was also his biggest Achilles heel, should she ever decide to turn against him. He would not only be powerless by her strength, but also devastated by her betrayal.


	3. Chapter 3  part I

**Chapter 3****.1**

**June 22nd, 2027**

**Abandon motel complex, right outside Avila Beach, CA, several miles south of Serrano point nuclear power plant.**

**John's Eyes**

The future. It looked worse than I'd ever imagined. Calling it insanely mad would actually be the understatement of the millennium. Not that I could see much of it to begin with, since Derek dragged me into some room, like five minuets after we'd gotten there. Weaver's time displacement stranded us in the middle of that power plant mom had stopped from going sky high, a while back. Unfortunately in 2027, it's apparently some highly secured resistance base, and they weren't too happy about the visit, with special regard to that nut job of a woman who runs the joint. I guess in this reality she has my job. I got the hell out of there, but now what?

Weaver was naturally still awol when Derek stuck me in some room closely resembling an interrogation cell. Just what the hell had I been thinking following her here? It didn't take a physicist to realize that having skipped from 2010 directly to 2027 might result in no one having a goddamn clue to who the hell I was. That thought was horrible enough, but I swear I felt a heat surge when the next one popped up a second later: Cameron had left 2010 in Cromartie's body before I did, meaning before this reality here could have evolved. What did that even mean; that she landed in some other, different, parallel time axis? Or maybe the mere fact of her leaving had preset my subsequent actions somehow to a single constant path, leading her here to THIS reality. And maybe god had a clue if that weaver had even sent us to the same coordinates. Whatever the hell, fact was there was No sign of her , or Cromartie or… whatever the hell it was that weaver had been breeding in that basement, and was now running around with cameron's chip. This was the last goddamn time she ever manipulates me into anything, I swear to god. I'm sick of it. Her's and mom's crap both. The screens said _'I'm sorry john'_ not _'follow me john'_, just what the hell was I thinking. That she might need rescuing or something. Usually it's the other way around. The local Derek wasn't making a very welcoming impression, not to mention the guy who almost shot my head off on site. Menendez, I think they were calling him. And then I noticed Kyle. I've never seen a picture of my father before. Mom didn't have any pictures of him. The only time I did see him was in the flesh, and he was about seven years old. The point is I think I starred at him in a way that engraved the word 'insane' on my forehead. That and the fact I wasn't thinking straight possibly resulted in me having blabbed a few too many words like 'time displacement'. Honestly, I think Derek and the others there didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about. The lovely room he dragged me into was on the other side of the power plant compound, and it took ten whole minutes to lead me there, in which I were pretty talkative and he less than non receptive. When we got to the room he pointed out a table and a chair, not that there were any other objects in there and more or less ordered me:

"_Wait here"._

The White fluorescent light was blending in perfectly with the gray walls, and to complete the picture it even had scenery, a window with clear sight of a junkyard. Oh, and guess who was guarding the door.

40 minuets I had been of starring at the wall and the junkyard. Perfect treatment if they were aiming to let me stew. Not that I had many options. Getting up and leaving was definitely not one, because Cameron had been guarding the door. Guarding may be overstated. Leaning against the wall right next to it and starring at nothing applies better. Still, she would have had my head like two seconds after I had reached the hall. And everyone else there had seemed a little too trigger happy.

"_Do you mind explaining to me, why am I stuck in this room?" _

"_Who's in charge here anyway, is it Derek? Where the hell is he?"_

"_HELLO! Are you hibernating, do you need a hearing aid in this time?"_

"_CAMERON !"_

"_You are an intruder. My orders forbid it that I speak to intruders"_

"_Right, orders. And since when do you actually do what people tell you?"_

"_Who are you? How did you get in this compound?"_

"_I've already told Derek, and you where standing __**right there**__. Or weren't you? That wasn't you earlier in the hallway, with the dog, was it? She was dressed completely different. Just how many Camerons have you people got lying around here?"_

"_Derek is coming"_

"_John…. Connor was it?"_

Pretty damn sure nothing was wrong with his memory.

"_Yes". Why am I stuck in here?" You already know I'm not metal and I'm not even carrying a gun."_

"_Well, here's the thing John. This here, incase you haven't noticed, is a secure compound. If there is some way in here, which we don't know about, but someone like you managed to find, than skynet operatives would sure as hell manage to find it, and kill everyone in here. Now, I'm sure you wouldn't want that to happen…?"_

"_No, I wouldn't"_

"_Good. That's, that's very good, John. So here's the dill. I'm goanna ask you one more time, how the hell is it that you got in here, because no one knows you here. I checked. And you're goanna give me an answer which makes sense. Or your goanna give it to them. You already met Private Menendez, and you do know what she is, don't you?" I don't care either way. _

_"look. I know it sounds crazy…"_

"_What, Time travel? Doesn't sound crazy at all. It's just not possible. Hey Menendez, do you know of any time machines around here?"_

"_NO, SIR"_

That guy Menendez was a certified moron. Even Cameron would have picked up on that much sarcasm.

"_Didn't think so. So unless, John, I see a De Lorean fly outside this window, let's assume you can give me a better explanation."_

Derek had always been pigheaded, and this particular Derek wasn't being much different. If anything, More cynical, annoying, and not to mention paranoid. I figured one way to turn him would probably be by spilling out every damn personal detail I knew about him and his brother. He might actually consider the story then, rather than knocking it. That of course all went down the drain the second her insaneness walked into that room. Cassandra Hale. God, the woman still gives me the creeps. Like something off the cast of the walking dead. She looked like 40, I guess maybe 45, dressed like nothing military. Like a lawyer or an accountant maybe. She had this stern look. Mom could look like that when she wanted to. Then she opened her mouth and an unbelievably fast swarm of words uttered in a heavy annoying British accent came out, and any briefly imagined resemblance to mom perished completely.

"_That with the De Lorean just might happen, Lt' Rees"._

"_Good evening, Mr. Connor, my name is Cassandra Hale; I'm the person in charge of this compound. How do you do?"_

"_Apparently not that well"._

If getting to Derek was still an option, I figured that would be the last chance.

"_Just ask Kyle if he remembers it too. The missiles, on Judgment day. The ones that passed right above your heads when you were practicing baseball in the back yard."_

"_Are you two acquainted, Lieutenant?"_

"_Thursdays in the park, Derek. You told me it had been your job to pick Kyle from school on Thursdays, because your mother had to work late on Thursdays. You used to take him to the park to throw some balls around, and then for ice cream. Every Thursday right up until he made it to the little league. And the day after that your father…"_

"_What's he going on about, Lt' Rees?"_

"_Search me"_

"_Alright, Enough of that, Mr. Connor, I'm not interested in you reciting your infiltration data base, but thank you kindly for clarifying the purpose of your visit here with us. There are three kinds of life forms in this compound, Mr. Connor. Soldiers of the human kind, soldiers of the artificial kind, and people who are stupid and selfish enough to get in there way. I'm not quite sure of the nature of your purpose her, just yet, however believe me when I tell you, you don't wish me to categorize you to the latter."_

"_Lieutenant, your presence is required in the briefing room, you will take Private Menendez with you, Miss Philips will remain here."_

"_YES, MAAM"_

_"Now that our circle is more intimate, I demand to know how it is that you know anything about operation time displacement. Only a handful of people has even heard these two words on a sentence outside the context of science fiction literature, which makes you, Mr. Connor, extremely special or exceptionally dangerous. Who sent you here, and from how far ahead?" I demand an answer immediately_.

Derek's Eyes

"_Lieutenant, your presence is required in the briefing room, you will take Sergeant Menendez with you, Miss Philips will remain here."_

_"YES, MAAM. Let's go, Menendez."_

_"Ohm, sir? "_

_"What is it, Menendez?"_

_"Sir, I mean, was that? I mean, I thought she never came down here. Is it true what they say about her, sir?"_

_"I don't know sergeant. What do THEY say?"_

_"That she made some kind of a deal with skynet. That the war will be over soon."_

_"Skynet doesn't make deals, sergeant. Go on to the briefing room. Tell them I'll be right there."_

_"But they say she's got most of the independent 't' units working our side now", Sir. _

"_Menendez, right? How long have you been assigned here?"_

"_A month, sir"_

"_A month! Let me guess. They probably picked you up with a whole bunch of others at one of the camps along the Mexican border? Where all the priests hang out._

"_No sir, I'm a city boy. LA Underground sector-L."_

_"Right. So you volunteered. They brought you here, gave you a rifle, a bed, a bible maybe if any got left. Good news is, you're probably better off, though it will get you killed. Long before Cassandra Hale or any other faction leader on this planet, will have this war won."_

"_You don't believe in her sir, do you?" _

"_Look, no one knows much about her other than the fact her father was some Australian weapon manufacturer in the few years after judgment day, when Australia…. You do know Australia remained safe haven until 2015, don't you? Back in 22 when skynet deployed its first network of infiltrators, killed 3012 resistance key figures in one week, and almost annihilated every human being on the planet, she showed up with a private army and gave us a fighting chance. She still gets the job done, even if she does think we should call machines Mr. & Miss, and aspire for some big future in which we all run the world together."_

"_What about the one she's interrogating in there?"_

"_You mean that Connor kid?"_

"_Yea. You think is one of those brainwashed human infiltrators?"_

"_I think he's a scared kid who was looking for adventures and found a tunnel we hadn't barricaded." _

"_But those things he said about you, sir. And sergeant Kyle have…"_

_"…have nothing to do with me or the sergeant, private. You go on now." _

John's eyes

"_You tell a lovely fairytale, Mr. Connor. Too bad that's all it is – a fairytale." Please, allow me to summarize: You have displaced yourself thirty years into the future upon the suggestion of a liquid metal series terminator, whom until five minutes before you had considered to be the sole creator of Skynet. The purpose of your journey was to retrieve your own personal body guard terminator, one with astonishing resemblance to miss Phillips here, who had displaced herself minuets earlier in yet a different terminator's body to an unknown destination with an unknown purpose. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. _

_By all means Mr. Connor, there's no need to cover your face, grinning is indeed in order, in light of the circus you've just described. Not the sort of indiscretions one would expect from someone who claims to be leading a resistance faction. I'm almost tempted to believe you. It's just almost inconceivable anyone having concocted such an impressive pile of nonsense. _

_Naturally, or so I've just been told, we can't find a trace of your friends, though if one of them has indeed conveniently the capabilities of the liquid metal series, then he could be posing as the bloody door knob on this doort."_

_'Or she could be you". Can YOU prove that you're who you say you are MISS HALE?"_

"_I beg your pardon?"_

"_Miss Philips. Your assessment?"_

"_He is not lying…. Or he is not aware that he is". _

_"In contrast to you, Mr. Connor, I don't need to prove anything to anybody. You see Mr. Connor, I've had this conversation several times before, with several of your former counterparts, so I know it's futile to continue this conversation any longer. _

_Rest assures the less recent and more plausible aspects of your story will be checked. _

"_what counterparts? Just who the hell do you think I am?"_

"_You are, Mr. Connor. Who they had programmed you to be. I suspect your brain hasn't been quite yours for some time now, and for that I truly am sorry." And even if you were who you claim to be, the fact remains that your mere being here was a foolishness which jeopardizes our entire operation."_

_"Miss Philips, you will escort Mr. Connor to the south gate. You know where to take him from there."_

"You're completely insane, lady".

"I expect I shall be seeing you, Mr. Connor".

Things kind of moved fast from there on. That Hale woman walked out and I felt an iron grip on my right shoulder.

"Come!"

…

…

…

…

…


End file.
